A number of temporary barriers are known in the art which are utilized to identify and restrict access to potentially hazardous areas such as excavations, construction zones and other such job sites. For the safety and welfare of workers at such job sites, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued safety standards regarding perimeters or rather control lines around hazardous areas. For example, in the beginning stages of building construction, contractors are required to install a perimeter around open foundations prior the construction of the building in order to protect against falls. Such perimeters or control lines serve to, at least, visually warn people of the presence of the foundation and the abrupt drop from the level of the ground outside the foundation walls to level of the surface within the foundation wall, e.g., the floor of a basement. These perimeters or control lines are often required to have a certain height so as to be obvious and easily identifiable as a barrier. They are also required to be positioned at a minimum distance away from the edge of the foundation in order to provide a margin of safety for someone walking along the perimeter.
Many known barriers include stanchions to which perimeters or control lines are attached. Generally these stanchions have a base in the form of a tripod or that is weighted such that the stanchions are supported or held upright. These types of bases help to stabilize the stanchions while at the same time holding them vertically relative to the surface on which they are arranged. Often times brightly colored, fluorescent and/or reflective safety tape, e.g., “signaling means” is attached to and extends between the stanchions which surround the potentially hazardous site. In other cases, a flexible rope, line or wire is secured to and extends between the stanchions and highly visible signaling means, safety flags or signs are attached to the rope at intervals along the perimeter or control line. Although such known stanchions do not require great effort to arrange and install, since they are generally free standing and relatively simple to move, often times they are moved, either inadvertently or purposefully, from their proscribed positions with respect to the edge of the hazardous site. For example, such free standing stanchions can be easily moved closer to the edge of the hazardous site, e.g., foundation, thereby creating a potentially unsafe situation and the possibility of being assessed a penalty or fine if the site is inspected by a regulatory official and it is found that the perimeter or control line fails to meet the minimum safety requirements.